Pro Fatima Zaman
Education is often mistakenly viewed as the sole responsibility of schools and teachers. Many parents drop their children at the school gate each morning and consider their job done until the report card arrives. Yet research and lived experience consistently prove one thing: children thrive when parents are genuinely involved in their schooling. The school, the teacher, and the parent are not separate forces, they are a team, and a team without all its players cannot win.
Teachers work tirelessly within classrooms, but their influence has natural limits. They manage thirty or more students at once, navigate a fixed curriculum, and operate within strict institutional boundaries. What happens outside the classroom, the homework habits, the reading routines, the dinner-table conversations about what was learned today, falls entirely within the parent’s domain. When parents neglect this space, a critical gap opens in the child’s learning journey that no teacher, however gifted, can fully bridge.
Consider what it means for a teacher to feel supported by the families they serve. A teacher who faces disengaged or hostile parents spends precious energy managing misunderstandings and conflict rather than teaching. Conversely, a teacher who feels respected and backed by families is energised, they bring creativity, patience, and deeper commitment to every lesson. Parental support is not merely sentimental; it is a practical fuel that keeps the engine of education running.
School management and social societies, too, depend heavily on community participation. Parent-teacher associations, fundraising committees, school governing boards, these structures exist because a school is not just a building administered by professionals. It is a living community institution that requires the active investment of every family it serves. When parents attend meetings, volunteer for events, and engage with school leadership, they send a powerful message to their children: education matters enough for me to show up.
Children are remarkably perceptive. They notice whether their parents speak respectfully about their teachers or dismiss them. They notice whether home is a place where learning is valued or ignored. Studies show that students whose parents maintain open communication with schools demonstrate better attendance, stronger academic performance, and healthier social behaviour. The involvement of a parent does not have to be grand, it can be as simple as asking “What was the best thing you learned today?” and genuinely listening to the answer.
Parents can support their children’s schools in many practical ways, attending parent-teacher meetings regularly, reinforcing classroom learning at home, participating in school committees, communicating respectfully with teachers and staff, monitoring homework, setting study routines, and volunteering time or skills for school activities. Even small, consistent efforts make a significant difference over time.
The burden on society to produce educated, capable, and compassionate citizens cannot rest on underpaid teachers and under-resourced schools alone. Parents must step into their role as co-educators with intention and consistency. A brighter future for children does not begin in a classroom, it begins at home, in the partnership between the family and the school. When both pull in the same direction, there is nothing a child cannot achieve.
